Wichita police chief: 'BTK is arrested'

[theanswerman]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/26/btk...ion/index.html



WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- A 59-year-old Park City, Kansas, man has been arrested in Wichita's notorious "BTK" serial killings, according to Wichita police.

Family members of the victims crowded into Wichita's city hall Saturday to hear the news.

"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," announced Police Chief Norman Williams.

Lt. Ken Landwehr, commander of the task force investigating the case, said Dennis Rader was arrested during a routine traffic stop and was taken into custody Friday. He is a suspect in the killings of 10 people since 1974.

Initially, only eight killings were linked to the BTK killer, but police have since linked the victims of two unsolved murders -- Dolores Davis in January 1991 and Marine Hedge in April 1985 -- to the case.

Both were Park City residents. CNN affiliate KAKE reported that Hedge once lived on the same block as Rader.

The BTK case -- which dates back to 1974 -- has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months, with the killer sending out letters in his continued taunting of law enforcement.

The killer calls himself BTK, "bind, torture and kill," a pattern he has followed with most of his victims.

Marine Hedge's body was found along a dirt road in Sedgwick County in May 1985, eight days after she was abducted from her home. The autopsy showed she had been strangled.

Davis was taken from her home January 19, 1991, after a brick was thrown through a sliding glass door. Her body was found beneath a bridge in Sedgwick County, her hands, feet and knees bound with pantyhose.

Park City is about 15 miles (24 km) north of Wichita.

The arrest came after authorities questioned a "person of interest" in the investigation Friday, and converged on a home in Park City, Kansas, just outside Wichita, sources told CNN.

CNN affiliate KAKE, a Wichita station that the killer has sent letters to in the past, said authorities had been awaiting results of DNA tests to see whether they could be linked to the case.

Outside the home in Park City, authorities cordoned off the street and investigators combed the area. A Wichita police bomb squad truck, SWAT trucks and dozens of police cars and other emergency vehicles lined the street.

One neighbor in Park City expressed shock about the developments.

"I don't even want to think that it could possibly be real," the neighbor, who gave his name as Greg, told KAKE. "This is a real normal block. I mean it's just normal families. It's quiet, it's peaceful. ... People walk their dogs, kids play on their bikes -- it's really normal. It's a pure piece of America."

Communicating with police
The man calling himself the BTK killer sent many notes to Wichita police and local media in the past 31 years -- and once even reported one of his own killings to police dispatchers.

The last death blamed on him was in 1986 when a 28-year-old mother, Vicki Wegerle, was killed in her home in Wichita.

From 1977 to 1979, police and news media received letters from a writer claiming to be the killer. That was followed by 25 years of silence, leading some to believe BTK had died.

In March 2004, his communications resumed when he linked himself to the eighth killing and divulged what he said was more information about himself.

Last week, the FBI confirmed that two letters found in Wichita were authentic communication from the killer. The driver's license of one of the slain women was found, as well.

In an interview with KAKE on Friday, Charlie Otero -- whose parents, brother and sister were the first victims of BTK in 1974 -- said he was anxious about the latest developments.

"My heart is leaping out of my chest," he said. "I just hope I can come out of my shell when all of this is over."

He said he longs to ask the BTK killer: "Why my family? What ties did my father have with this man? And I want to know the truth."
________________________________

YAYAYYYYAYAY!! hes gonna die!!

[dawsongirl]

God...over at the Yahoo MB on this story, everyone is bitching about him being a Nazi, or a liberal, or a Bush lover or some crap like that. Those people are all just ignorant *******s. Who the hell cares?! This guy is a dirty bastard who deserves to fry. Who cares in the long run what party he favored or what his religion was? He killed people!

I just had to get that off my chest.

[theanswerman]

i agree.

[Janice]

This is huge news, and they're pretty certain that they've got the right guy.

[Brian Damage]

You've gotta love the modern miracle of DNA testing. Without it, this lunatic would still be walking free.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

You've gotta love the modern miracle of DNA testing. Without it, this lunatic would still be walking free.

That's very true. It also frees wrongly convicted people.

I watched a show on the Green River Killer last night. Now there was a real psycho. He killed dozens of women.

[Janice]

I know that BTK stands for bind, torture and kill, but it sounds like a new burger at Burger King.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by Janice

I know that BTK stands for bind, torture and kill, but it sounds like a new burger at Burger King.

[James"Thunder"Early]

His daughter got suspious and sent the police his DNA sample and it had a 90% match to the killer. she was smart to do that.

[theanswerman]

I like how the police are "patting themselves on the back" for catching the guy, yet his own daughter turned him in.

[David]

Thank God they've caught him. What he did was HORRIBLE.

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by Janice

I know that BTK stands for bind, torture and kill, but it sounds like a new burger at Burger King.

Every time I looked at BTK, I thought of Burger King.

Not a great ad, but effective I guess.

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by Dr. Phillips

His daughter got suspious and sent the police his DNA sample and it had a 90% match to the killer. she was smart to do that.

How did she get it? It's not like you can walk up to someone and say, "Hey dad? I need help with my chem homework. Can I have a DNA sample?"

[Janice]

BTK Suspect Reportedly Confesses to Killings
Suspect Could Appear in Court This Monday

By DAVID TWIDDY, AP

WICHITA, Kan. (Feb. 27) - The man suspected in a string of 10 slayings attributed to the BTK serial killer confessed to at least six of those killings, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation said Sunday.

Investigators now believe Dennis L. Rader may have been responsible for as many 13 slayings - including at least one that occurred after the death penalty was enacted in Kansas, the source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Rader made the confession on Friday, the same day as his arrest, according to the source. ''The guy is telling us about the murders,'' the source said.

Police spokeswoman Janet Johnson declined to comment.

Rader was being held on a $10 million bond in the deaths of 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Police had long linked the BTK killer to eight murders, but added two more after Rader's arrest.

Now police suspect the BTK killer in the deaths of two Wichita State University students, as well as a woman who lived down the street from another known victim of BTK, the killer's self-coined nickname that stands for ''Bind, Torture, Kill.''

Prosecutors had said initially they could not pursue the death penalty against Rader because the 10 murders linked to BTK occurred before Kansas state law allowed capital punishment.

Rader, 59, could appear in court as early as Monday, when he would stand in front of a judge on video while prosecutors recite yet-to-be-filed criminal charges against him. The judge would also review Rader's bond and set a permanent amount.

The hearing could happen Monday but was more likely to be postponed until Tuesday, the district attorney's office said Sunday. It was unclear whether Rader had a lawyer.

Police were confident Rader's arrest last week would bring to an end 30 years of fear about the BTK strangler. But as they pored over news of a suspect's capture, many residents here were left with an unsettling feeling - that he had been hidden among them all along.

Charlie Otero, whose parents and two siblings were BTK's first victims in 1974, said Sunday that he was ''waiting with anticipation'' to learn more about the DNA evidence that has been credited with helping crack the case.

Otero believes his family was targeted, although the rest of BTK's victims were likely chosen at random. He isn't sure why the family was targeted but said it's interesting that Rader and his father served in the Air Force at the same time in the 1960s. ''I'm sure this will all come out during the trial,'' he said.

Rader, a married father of two, a Cub Scout leader and an active member of a Lutheran church, was anything but a recluse.

His job as a city code enforcement supervisor required daily contact with the public, and he even appeared on television in 2001 in his tan city uniform for a story on vicious dogs running loose in Park City.

Before becoming a muncipal employee, Rader worked for a home-security company, where he held several positions that allowed him access to customers' homes, including a role as installation manager. He worked for ADT Security Systems from 1974 to 1989 - the same time as a majority of the BTK killings.

Mike Tavares, who worked with Rader at ADT, described him as a ''by-the-books'' employee who would often draw diagrams of houses and personally make sure technicians installed systems correctly.

While Rader was known as a blunt person and rubbed some people the wrong way, it never struck co-workers as anything other than businesslike.

''I've spoken to some co-workers who were around then, and everybody is very numb,'' said Tavares, who left the company in 2001.

At his church and around town, many expressed shock that Rader was accused of being the BTK killer.

''Disbelief, absolute disbelief,'' said a tearful Carole Nelson, a member of Christ Lutheran Church, where Rader was an usher and the president of the church council. ''I never would have guessed in a million years.''

The church's pastor, Michael Clark, said Rader's wife, Paula, was in a state of shock when he visited the family, who remained in seclusion Sunday.

''Her demeanor and voice indicated she was suffering,'' Clark said.

Just days before his arrest, Rader brought spaghetti sauce and salad to a church supper, even though he was unable to attend himself, church member Paul Carlstedt said.

''The guy that walked in here was not the face of evil,'' said Bob Smyser, an usher at the church.

Still, a sense of relief was palpable around Wichita after the apparent capture of the killer who had sent taunting letters to the media since the 1970s.

''Hallelujah, praise the Lord,'' Gaylene Brown said over breakfast Sunday at Don's Restaurant, where Rader's face was a common sight.

Police disclosed little about how they identified Rader as a suspect and have said they will not comment further on the case, but bits and pieces of the investigation have filtered out.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told The Associated Press that DNA evidence was the key to cracking the case. It was unclear whether BTK's letters helped lead to the arrest. Police have said they obtained semen from the crime scenes even though the killer did not sexually assault his victims.

Wichita television station KAKE, citing sources it did not name, reported that DNA from Rader's daughter, Kerri, was instrumental in his capture, though KAKE anchor Larry Hatteberg said it did not appear the daughter turned in her father.

Parts of the profile released earlier by police seemed to match up. Investigators said they believed the killer was familiar with a professor at Wichita State University. Rader graduated from the university in 1979.

In the 1970s, Rader worked at a nearby Coleman camping gear plant where two of his victims were employed.

[Brian]

Originally Posted by dawsongirl

How did she get it? It's not like you can walk up to someone and say, "Hey dad? I need help with my chem homework. Can I have a DNA sample?"

It's really simple. She could have given them his toothbrush, hairbrush, or anything that would give off skin cells. Anything from in the mouth like the inside of the cheek or saliva is good enough to get a DNA sample.